Basics of Financial Literacy
Published:
Last Edited:
Disclaimer: All articles are presented for educational purposes only and do not constitute financial advice. Opinions are my own.
A lot of my friends ask how they can improve their personal finances. For a nerd who’s willing to go deep, it’s possible to go very very deep.
But for most people, there’s outsize value in following a few simple rules. Here are those rules:
- Live beneath your means.
- Have a method of meeting short-term liquidity needs.
- Don’t carry high-interest debt.
- Use tax-advantaged account structures as much as reasonably possible.
- Invest using internationally diversified index funds.
The specifics — such as “what constitutes high-interest debt?”, “which index funds should I use?”, and other similar questions — are implementation details I leave to personal preference.
Resources #
If you’re interested in continuing to improve your financial literacy, a wealth of resources are available to help you get started on the right path. I don’t have perfect agreement with any of the sources below, but they all point in the right direction.
- Book: The Simple Path to Wealth ~ J. L. Collins
- Pamphlet: If You Can ~ William J. Bernstein
- Podcast/YouTube: The Money Guy Show ~ Brian Preston & Bo Hanson
- Subreddit: r/personalfinance
- Forum: bogleheads.org